A Very Simple Photography Tip.
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
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This week I talk through a very simple photography tip that has helped me get better photos, as I search for very early autumn colours.
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Thanks so much for the support with the book everyone! All of them are in stock currently still :)
www.jamespopsys.com/store?category=Books
Thanks so much for restocking vol. 1 (2018). Having only found your channel relatively recently, I feared I'd missed out, but gladly managed to order all 3 books.
Cheers!
Hey I noticed you’re not biking as much - apart from today! - in your videos. I’m wondering whether the drop bar gravel bike is not as good for adventure photography as your mountain bike? How about doing a photography x bicycle type video to discuss bicycle types (eg gravel vs mountain bike) from an outdoor photography perspective? Is the less upright body position with a large camera backpack problematic on a drop bar bike? What about stability? Can you explore as well as on your mountain bike? Have you ever considered something like a Salsa Blackborow, for example?
Also re spiders in Australia, I once had a 12cm huntsman spider crawl across my chest in the middle of a hot summer’s night - yes it did wake me up - yes I can relate to being bothered by a spider in your home and you’re definitely entitled to be feeling a bit traumatised the next day
Would be interested to know if you have had to amend your presets at all since moving to the Sony system
Hi James. I'm kind of new to your channel. It's great and your videos are both entertaining and informative. I'm also a new photographer/videographer. QUESTION: Ignoring the point you were making in the video, would a gradient filter have saved that first shot of the house in the hills?
Enjoy your hols, when you're away I'll be running around shaking all the trees.
Being a post-processing fanatic, I really like how you show the shots before and after processing.
Agreed! This is really appreciated. Also, your personality.
8:42 for future reference, best to tap potentially electric fences with the back of your hand. If it was electric, it would have caused your muscles to seize, and you would have actually ended up grabbing on to it
With DC current
This is a fun fact I tell people whenever electric fences are brought up lol
Starting at the max zoom and working out could be such a good skill to learn how to frame a shot for new photographers like myself. Amazing video as always. Thank you very much
Small bit of advice when testing a suspected electric fence (13:50) use the back of your hand. Also, I ordered all three of your books after last weeks video, can't wait for them to arrive.
\i learnt that trick from of all things, a "Tomorrow People" book.
or a blade of grass?
@@ruthwilson9449 A blade of grass is non-conductive, won't do anything when touched to electric fence.
@@dalerobinson8456 a grass straw is a good way to check a fence, it wont shock you, but if it is electric, you will feel a small tingle in your fingers.
There is no 13:50
Love your content AF, it isn’t dry, boring, lecturing, neither pompous but an-assumingly educative. A whole shitload of knowledge and entertainment … Thanks man!
The colours are certainly changing for you. Here in Melbourne Australia, we have just been released from a long lockdown and am so enjoying revisiting my favourite locations. Not too many spiders here either 😉
Watching the video from Melbourne Australia as well, right after carefully relocating a few spiders of the day on the wall to the outside.
Good to hear Australia is starting to let its citizens have lives again. You guys have had it bad with the lockdown garbage.
@@Mike_to_the_k It's worked for them though hasn't it? Unlike us on the covid island.
@@AlexMcDougallPhotography idk what you’re referring to as the Covid island but here in Idaho we had pretty much no lock down and we did just fine. Especially small businesses, they didn’t get fucked into oblivion by policy here.
@@Mike_to_the_k That would be the UK.
Our spiders in Australia have been known to drag away small adults in the night.
Don’t forget the drop bears.
Stay safe James. 🇦🇺🤣
Right up until last weekend, it's been unusually warm (20-25C) here in the middle of Canada and I've been loving it because I've been able to get out and stay out for hours to photograph the fall colours. Now, it's a more normal 5C and windy and dreary. Ugh.
Just got back from a fall trip to Cape Breton and mainland Nova Scotia. Never seen such vibrant reds in my life. It was truly astounding.
Photographing windy roads with the GM 135 works out real well
As a crappy beginner photographer I find myself cropping the majority of my photos when I get them home because it increases the impact. That was a great tip which I will use next time i go out. Maybe I can get it right in camera, next time.
Exactly Jeff! That’s the same (wrong) begginers mistake I keep repeating.
👌👍🔝📸
Love this channel, and love the Saturday inspiration every week. Some solid advice, brilliant humour and great photographs. Keep it up and enjoy the holiday.
Well said and so true!
Like you I live in the centre of Ireland and am surrounded by amazing landscapes. Hadn't really appreciated it until foreign travel got so tough!
Great shots
Thanks for the advice! I only shoot primes so I can’t zoom but you really made me think about starting from what I want to capture rather than what I don’t want to lose.
This is an excellent video and everything so well explained and demonstrated making it easy to. understand. I am an amateur photographer and an electronic engineer by profession. I am prompted to comment about how to safely check if wires are electrified. Touching them with hands up or down is not a sure and safe method. If you are wearing shoes that are well insulated,you will not get a shock even if the wires are electrified. But whenever any part of your body comes in contact with the wire and the ground both, you can get a serious shock. The only safe and easy solution is to keep a small electric tester/screwdriver in your bag if you are going to be in such a situation.
Zooming out and not in is one of the best simple tips I have heard I think, thanks James 🙏
re "not really my cup of tea......" ........Thats THEEEE image in your video that does it for me !
beautiful
I love when you show what your camera actually see. Very helpfull
Hello James. Have a lovely weekend.
Thanks for the remark about Location in the world! 👍🏻
I love the reminder that there is always something interesting in our own backyard. The western face of the Rocky mountains that dominate my landscape, that while beautiful, I feel like I over-photograph, are always the most popular photos to my friends in the UK.
Blue 🔵 orange 🧡 perfect combination. Probably the best example of color theory.
Have fun on the holiday!
Good advice, James. I like that idea of starting out most zoomed in and pulling back until the most impactful frame is found.
Colours have peaked in Nova Scotia. Have visited the province many times but never managed an autumn trip util this year. Also, the first trip in over 22 months! A truly amazing year for fall colour. Never seen such vibrant reads. Nova Scotia/Cape Breton....a must trip for fall colour.
I would highly recommend you the Sony 24-105 f4. I use it on my A7rii and it covers 95% of the usual landscape focal lengths.
I basicly leave my 12-24 f4 at home 90% of the time.
The colors are lovely (the coat and the bottle) and I've never thought to try zooming out intentionally as you've demonstrated. So, unless I feel the need to emulate your color choices I can try this technique at no cost! Thanks for the tip!!!
All good advices James! except the wire testing one lol.
Totally agree. Just shot some sports photography (discgolf) this weekend. Did not have the courage to get closer to the players at first but by the end of the weekend was just sitting next to them while they were throwing. 😀 completly different perspective and cool photos that way.
Love your videos and your humor :P
Thanks mate, love your work. Don't even mind the water-bottle
"why are you laughing?"...darn near spilled my tea! Another good video, James...great tip!
Oh my that sketchy ladder! You be careful out there is the forest James ....lol
I actually love the image at 10:16 that you said you didn't like
Nice educational video. One topic, lots of photo examples, good job. Wow an old Dodge in Wales.
That's a really interesting tip James, and one that I must admit I'd not thought of. I'm going to give that a go! ta very much. It's interesting that you're using pathways to illustrate your point too, because pathways are one of my favourite things to take photos of in the first place.
You do have a particular nice piece of nature closeby James.
Fantastic tip, so simple. Thank you!
Always enjoy. After watching you for a while now I have found myself doing more hand held and actually enjoying it.
I love seeing someone showing the beauty of Wales actually looks like
Great video and an excellent tip, James! By the way, I was told by an electrical engineer friend to use the back of my hand when checking for something that might have a charge. It could prevent a situation where you involuntarily grip the charged wire. I saw that someone else mentioned this in a comment as well, but I thought it would be worth reiterating. Hope you have a great holiday and the autumn colors are still waiting for you when you get back!
I am always amazed at how almost everyone seems to get the meaning of that Robert Capa quote wrong. "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough." Capa certainly didn't mean this LITERALLY, but FIGURATIVELY. By "not close enough", he means you as a photographer are not "all in", you lack a connection to the scene you're photographing, you are holding back.
Here's what Alex Webb says about this Capa quote and advice: I’ve always chosen to interpret Capa’s saying expansively, to mean not necessarily getting physically close but getting emotionally, spiritually, or psychologically close. In this more expansive sense, it seems like good advice.
Regardless, the composition advice given in James' video is good.
I agree 😊
Woah! Looking forward to Sats afternoons, love watching your vids. Keep them coming.
I recall I had just bought a wide angle lens and gone to Italy, where I promptly started at the wide end over and over and over again, only to come home with a bunch of mediocre shots. About a week after coming home, I stumbled across your video talking about wide angle lenses, and how you keep yours at the wide end, and zoom out until the scene looks right. That one bit of knowledge would've made for so many more useable shots!
Frankly I'm getting to the point that using Squarespace is the last thing I would do.
was cool that you showed the before and after edit, versions. the car/caravan... wellll eery, ducky! very american film scene! loved the river scene, like a thomas cole painting even with all the detail and really showed the quality of your camera/lens. may help to think of spider as just a mummy out on a foraging mission, for her family... no?.. !! anyway, happy holiday! 🙌🏼
Thank you for this awesome tip!
Lovely shots James, the colours are very nice indeed 👌 Hope you get another go at it.
Worth a try. Thanks for the tip!
FYI, if there are insulators on the fence post, you should just assume the wire is electrified, but a wooden post may lack insulators and still have hot wires.
Wow! I did not thinner You have and tree in England…😎
stumbled across your page on this video, very impressed. got yourself another follower!
Watching your videos makes me feel like i can take the shots with the same result yet i fail everytime. Following you made me find out my style and probably my mentor I THINK. 🤪 which is you.
Hi James, another great video. Just a tip from an electrician worker, never touch electric wire with fingers down, do the same thing but touch with fingers up or you will grab the wire and your muscles are hard to release. Cheers
you woould of loved it the other night mate i was taking an astro shot at a waterfall in Karinjin and a redback was crawling next to me about 5 foot away and then a baby snake about 2 foot long started coming for me ! i was shitting myself ! but still got the shot lol
Autumn colors are here in Oregon, unfortunately we are expecting wind tomorrow so buh bye leaves. Loved the railroad photo. -Elaine
My photo instructor used to say "Get as close to your subject as possible and take one step forward.)
I think rather then zooming in or out a better approach is to choose your focal length beforehand and adjust afterwards, that way you make a conscious choice of what FOV to use and you better learn what different focal lengts look like and are good for
James, You are on to something here. Been using this technique the past few times out and have come home with some great photos. Thanks. Always enjoy your videos.
Mate you’re incredible well glad I watched this video
I like the pre and post edit views
I agree- I see a lot of landscape photos that show a big rock in the foreground, dominating the frame, and a mountain way in the background. Why does a rock deserve more of the image than the whole mountain?
I want to be a landscape photographer but here on the edge of the big city there isn't much landscape so I need to switch to urban photography because there are lots of buildings around here.
As a macro photographer i totally agree with "getting closer to te subject". 😉
Drone flying power stance! Another great one James. So beautiful there!
Great points you made in this video! It's important to know what is your subject in the image. Giving it just enough context and not overcomlicating it with too much stuff is quite hard. In my opinion one of the key skills in photography is to know what to include in the photo.
i liked the car pic @8:37 . shows more of a mood and vibe
Good simple tip James...will have to give it a try. Love your humor. Makes me nervous when you get so close the edge...have to look away. Have a fabulous holiday with Emily and Noah and safe travels.
Great tip, thanks.
Great video. Love the content. Especially the pictures
Thank you 👍📷😎
Great tip! Something I’ve never thought about but do all the time. Zoom into a scene vs zooming out of a scene.
I always get a couple of laughs watching your videos. Good advise about zooming out.
Thanks, James. Really like this tip. Simple but helpful.
Back to the photography & another good video. For the indecisive, whilst zooming out may be best, perhaps consider continuing to zoom out and take three alternative shots at different focal lengths. Subject, Subject in local environment, Subject in wider environment.
I love your photography AND your humor! 😉
I live in the PNW (upper left USA) and it's insane the amount of time you could spend here taking photos and probably still not capture everything
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, experience, and humor with us, James. Love your content.
Some nice images there James.
Never thought of zooming out but I probably do it all the time, without being aware 😊👌
Haha, spiders down here, I could tell you some scary spider stories. I had a centipede in my sock once, it stung me, wasn't nice. We also get scorpions, you dont walk around the house in the dark with no shoes on. Like the car shots, could have been my yard, I have an old effy and a not so old Landrover. Mine all work though. Interesting seeing the shots before and after editing.
The image of a cottage with blue windows and door at 1:32 was very picturesque
I love your advices James. Continue creating, as we say here in the Philippines, "Padayon".
Great video James! Such a good point about not being close enough to your composition. I have just completed my mountain landscape photography vlog and I was kicking myself half way up the mountain wishing I had brought my 70/200mm with me but I just couldnt justify the weight over a 5 hour hike so I could relate to that a lot. Great images thrughout this video. Great explanation too. Thanks for sharing James. I look forward to the next video. Keep up the great work!
When you said you'd start at a longer focal length... I was thinking like 105mm or something. I might be a bit influenced by the fact that my favourite lens is a 135mm prime... and I use it for pretty much everything from landscape to wildlife (ok, more tame life but still...) and macroish stuff.
Enjoy ur holiday! Thanks for putting the raw and then the edited! I love seeing the before and after
Unfortunately, it may be next year for me, too. I'm trying to get to the Appalaicians, but can't for two more weekends. The struggle is real, but family comes first.
Great advice, I totally love your drone shots! Have a nice vacation!!!
Moonpie
great tip. Obligatory comment funny to see you go from your full frame DSLR days to handheld G9, and now to Sony full frame carrying around a mountain of gear on your back :D
Enjoy your holiday. I'm sure Emily could do with a break.
James, remember this axiom, "sketchy things are for illustrators".
I suppose it's all about acknowledging the loss-aversion bias, and choosing which way to bias ourselves. I think I normally have the opposite problem though.
Do we want loss aversion to bias us against losing context, or do we want it to bias us against losing prominence and detail in the central subject?
Great tip that I never heard of! Will def try it out albeit with my prime lenses… got no zooms haha.
Can't wait to see the book when it's ready! Love this channel so much. Literally stop everything when I see a notification of a new video. In this case I'm halfway through regrouting my bathroom floor. I should probably get back to that. (Once I've grown a new pair of knees.)
Great video mate
another great video !!!!!
Always love your work James, but these are looking a little neon to my eye. Just for another's perspective. Cheers.
"Hopefully, things don't peak before I get back. Because I would cry" 🤣
Thank you James, really enjoyed that little jornt! Of course, it may have been a long jornt - we just don't know. I appreciate yourpoints about framing subjects, I do tend to go too wide on the bases I can crop in post - however losing some definision! I do like to use a zoom but someone made the point; using a 25mm (50 equivalent in full) is a good exercise - just move yourself. Quite a few of your shot are close to this focal length by the way, but always a danger one might step of a cliff! Regards, Martyn
Another great video James! Never thought of zooming out and working my way backwards probably a lot easier for me too as I like having compressed shots to show scale of things more and overall just find the compositions a lot cleaner and easier on the eyes